Computer fails to startup

Hi,

I hope I'm in the correct group to ask my question...

My mother has a pc that we've bought in Aldi (belgium) with a Windows
XP Home edition pre-installed. The computer worked fine, until last
thuesday. All of a sudden, the computer fails to startup. When turning
on the computer, the monitor says "Intel inside", which is what we
always get to see when starting up the computer. But this screen should
stay only a few seconds and change into the Windows Xp startup screen.
But this doesn't happen.

We tried entering the bios setup by pressing the delete button
(documentation of the computer says this is the one to enter the bios
setup), but nothing happens... Probably, the computer is to screwed up
to do that as well. If I remember correctly, you have to press this key
when the Windows Startup screen is visible, and since we don't get
there, it seems logical that the computer crashes before we can try
this.

We tried booting from the Windows Xp cd, but then as well, the "Intel
inside" screen stays and nothing happens.

We have no clue what might be the problem:
As the computer won't startup, it would have to be a very necessary
component for Windows to be able to startup, that isn't working any
more. So then I would say
(1) motherboard and processor
(2) videocard
(3) memory
(4) hard disk.

I suppose that booting from the cd-rom should work if the hard disk
were the problem. So I don't think it is the hard disk.

As the monitor shows "Intel inside", I suppose that the motherboard,
processor and videocard are still working fine as well. The monitor
cannot know what processor the computer has, unless the motherboard and
processor are still working to tell this information. And if the
videocard wasn't working any more, how could this info be shown on the
screen?

So this brings me at the computer memory... But this is all just
guessing. Any idea's of what we can try to do to figure out the
problem?

Veerle

"Veerle" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi,

I hope I'm in the correct group to ask my question...

My mother has a pc that we've bought in Aldi (belgium) with a Windows
XP Home edition pre-installed. The computer worked fine, until last
thuesday. All of a sudden, the computer fails to startup. When turning
on the computer, the monitor says "Intel inside", which is what we
always get to see when starting up the computer. But this screen should
stay only a few seconds and change into the Windows Xp startup screen.
But this doesn't happen.

We tried entering the bios setup by pressing the delete button
(documentation of the computer says this is the one to enter the bios
setup), but nothing happens... Probably, the computer is to screwed up
to do that as well. If I remember correctly, you have to press this key
when the Windows Startup screen is visible, and since we don't get
there, it seems logical that the computer crashes before we can try
this.

We tried booting from the Windows Xp cd, but then as well, the "Intel
inside" screen stays and nothing happens.

We have no clue what might be the problem:
As the computer won't startup, it would have to be a very necessary
component for Windows to be able to startup, that isn't working any
more. So then I would say
(1) motherboard and processor
(2) videocard
(3) memory
(4) hard disk.

I suppose that booting from the cd-rom should work if the hard disk
were the problem. So I don't think it is the hard disk.

As the monitor shows "Intel inside", I suppose that the motherboard,
processor and videocard are still working fine as well. The monitor
cannot know what processor the computer has, unless the motherboard and
processor are still working to tell this information. And if the
videocard wasn't working any more, how could this info be shown on the
screen?

So this brings me at the computer memory... But this is all just
guessing. Any idea's of what we can try to do to figure out the
problem?

Veerle

It would appear to be more of a software problem then hardware.
Try one of the public.windowsxp.newusers/general/ or basics groups.
Rgds
Antioch

antioch wrote:
It would appear to be more of a software problem then hardware.

I doubt that. If it were a software problem I think I would have to be
able to boot from the Windows CD, but I can't. Also I guess I would
have to be able to enter the bios setup, because this has nothing to do
with the installed OS, but I can't either.

So I'm pretty sure it is a hardware problem... I wish it were a
software problem, then I could just re-install the Windows. But now,
not being able to boot from hard disk or CD, I don't know where to
start.

But I'll post it in the groups you suggested as well, perhaps someone
there will be able to help my out.

Veerle wrote:

antioch wrote:
It would appear to be more of a software problem then hardware.

I doubt that. If it were a software problem I think I would have to be
able to boot from the Windows CD, but I can't. Also I guess I would
have to be able to enter the bios setup, because this has nothing to do
with the installed OS, but I can't either.

So I'm pretty sure it is a hardware problem... I wish it were a
software problem, then I could just re-install the Windows. But now,
not being able to boot from hard disk or CD, I don't know where to
start.

But I'll post it in the groups you suggested as well, perhaps someone
there will be able to help my out.

This most certainly is *not* a software problem. You've got failing hardware
because the system isn't even going through POST. Here are some general
hardware troubleshooting steps:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...roubleshooting

Testing hardware failures often involves swapping out suspected parts with
known-good parts. If you can't do the testing yourself and/or are
uncomfortable opening your computer, take the machine to a professional
computer repair shop (not your local equivalent of BigStoreUSA).

Malke
--
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic"

Malke schreef:
This most certainly is *not* a software problem. You've got failing hardware
because the system isn't even going through POST. Here are some general
hardware troubleshooting steps:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...roubleshooting

Thanks, but since I'm not able to boot from hard drive or cd-rom (and
there's no floppy, the computer is only 3 years old and has a cd and
dvd writer instead) I won't be able to use all this testing software.

Testing hardware failures often involves swapping out suspected parts with
known-good parts. If you can't do the testing yourself and/or are
uncomfortable opening your computer, take the machine to a professional
computer repair shop (not your local equivalent of BigStoreUSA).

We opened it up to look inside, but at first sight, we couldn't see
anything. (Did this once seven years ago with my own computer to notice
that the mother board was completely black with a hole inside ;-)) My
husband will try this week after his work to do some swapping out of
some parts to see if we can get the computer to work again, but I
suspect the motherboard the most of being the problem, and it's a bit
difficult to swap that one out :-).

On 20 Aug 2006 10:48:16 -0700, "Veerle"
wrote:

I suppose that booting from the cd-rom should work if the hard disk
were the problem. So I don't think it is the hard disk.

As the monitor shows "Intel inside", I suppose that the motherboard,
processor and videocard are still working fine as well. The monitor
cannot know what processor the computer has, unless the motherboard and
processor are still working to tell this information. And if the
videocard wasn't working any more, how could this info be shown on the
screen?

So this brings me at the computer memory... But this is all just
guessing. Any idea's of what we can try to do to figure out the
problem?

You can't absolutely rule out anything at this point, I've seen a
failed HD keep a board from booting. It's pretty unlikely, though.

It's showing "Intel inside" proves nothing about IDing the
processor--that's something built into the machine, not the result of
a processor ID. It does mean that MB, CPU, memory and video are all
working to some degree that it got that far.

The delete to get into startup is only active for a short while, maybe
you're pressing it too late. Since the machine is apparently set to
boot with a logo you won't see any of the boot status messages.

I would try to get into the bios and turn off the logo so you see the
actual status messages, there might very well be something in there
that will tell you what's up.